Rowlands, Samuel

(?1570-?1630)

   Nothing is known of this poet, other than he was a writer of tracts in prose and verse between 1598 and 1628, many of them of a religious nature. The Betraying of Christ (1598) was fervently religious. His second publication, The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine (1600), secured his popularity. It consists of thirty-seven epigrams and seven satires on the abuses of contemporary society, and private persons are attacked under assumed Latin names. A Mery Meetinge, or 'tis Mery when Knaves mete (1600) along with the previous one, were condemned as offensive; both pamphlets were burned and twentynine booksellers were fined for buying these books. Not deterred, Rowlands republished them under different titles. Many of his poems describe the low life of London - beggars, tipplers, thieves, and swaggering bully-boys. Some of his other publications: Democritus, 1607. The Knave of Clubs, 1611. The Melancholie Knight, 1615. The Bride, 1617. Good Newes and Bad Newes, 1622. Hell's Broke Loose, 1695. Some of his poems: "A Foole and His Money is Soone Parted," "A Pocket-Picker Most Exceeding Braue," "An Vnkind Man, Kills the Heart of a Woman."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Elizabethan Lyrics. Norman Ault, ed. William Sloane Associates, 1949. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Invitation to Poetry: A Round of Poems from John Skelton to Dylan Thomas. Lloyd Frankenberg, Doubleday, 1956. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse. Emrys Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 1991. The Oxford Book of Comic Verse. John Gross, ed. Oxford University Press, 1994.